EXCLUSIVE: Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has signed on to costar in director Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion for Universal. The sci-fi thriller, starring Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough and Olga Kurylenko, is set to begin production in March in Louisiana.

Based on Kosinski’s own graphic novel, the picture is set in a future where the Earth surface has been rendered uninhabitable, with most humans living above the clouds. Back on earth, those who remain have to deal with brutal alien Scavengers that stalk the ruins. But when a surface drone repairman (Cruise) discovers a mysterious woman in a crash-landed pod, it sets off an unstoppable chain of events that will force him to question everything he knows. Coster-Waldau will play Sykes, a battle-hardened, physically imposing, intelligent and extremely athletic military technology and weapons expert.

Coster-Waldau plays Jamie Lannister on HBO’s Game of Thrones, which returns for its second season on April 1st. He also starrd in the German production, Headhunters, which premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. He has also completed production on Mama, starring with Jessica Chastain, for producer Guillermo Del Toro and Universal. Coster-Waldau is repped by Impression Entertainment and WME.